The Big Papi prediction contest

With about 78 percent of the season’s games done and gone, Big Papi is leading the majors with 45 home runs and 119 RBIs. That puts him on pace for a not shabby 58/153.

But will he end up there? What if Manny’s not in the lineup protecting him? What if his ED acts up? What if he strains a groin muscle legging out a triple? For all your intrepid future predictors out there, here’s your chance to guess where Papi’ll be on the morning of October 2. And just like on “The Price Is Right” (except for the dishwashers and Bob Barker), the person who’s closest without going over will get a signed, personalized copy of Feeding the Monster, shipping and handling included. (Or, if you’d rather read about the Times, a personalized, autographed copy of Hard News.) For simplicity’s sake, home runs and RBIs will count equally, so someone who’s off by 2 home runs and 3 RBIs will be counted the same as someone who’s off by 5 RBIs. Post your predictions in the comments section of this post by Sunday at noon, EST. One entry per person, etc etc etc. And no more arguing about Sean McAdam.

(If you post your guess and it doesn’t get posted right away, that’s only because I’m not sitting at my computer all the time. Appearances to the contrary. Don’t worry — it’ll go up.)

12:30 pm Sunday update: Well, that’s it for entries — we’ve got 52, and I’ll set the crack FTM Blog number crunching team (read: me) to work on this as soon as the season’s over. In the meantime, I hope all of you have the book already. It’ll only make the winning copy that much more rewarding. Or something.